There are too many filthy-minded children of all ages who have been taught to read despite all the evidence that this is a pointless exercise. It is they who are responsible for these crass suggestions, which, sadly, can be supported from the text if one looks at it in a certain way (from the perspective of blissful ignorance). These people are also the ones who snigger childishly when Hamlet's says:
Quote:
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When he himself might his quietus make/With a bare bodkin
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and who go through the Oxford dictionary underlining rude words. The only excuse for these contemptible little philistines is their unbelievable small-mindedness, which goes hand-in-hand with a desire to belittle or pervert found only in the outstandingly stupid.
Having said that, English is a language impoverished by having only one word (love) to describe a large number of differing feelings, most of which are completely asexual. This is complicated by the fact that the relationship shared by Sam and Frodo is a survival from feudalism rarely found these days even in Britain (yep, those comedy rustics, country squires and faithful butlers so beloved by Hollywood have all gone the way of the dodo): that between a kindly and understanding master and a loyal and trusted servant (a senior servant, mark you; it lacks the condescendingly avuncular overtones of a relationship between the master and, for example, the stable lad in charge of his favourite horse). This sort of relationship can never even be called friendship with any degree of accuracy because although it's founded on mutual respect and trust there's no sense of equality. This is not to say that the bond isn't deeper than that between friends or more selfless than that between lovers, but it lacks the familiarity of either. Sam would never address Frodo as anything other than 'Mr Frodo' or 'Sir'; to do so would be to take liberties, although his position as a personal servant does allow him to use 'Mr. Frodo' rather than the more formal 'Mr. Baggins'.
Of course nowadays all people are supposedly equal, so this sort of culture-of-deference stuff's a bit distasteful, but without an understanding of that way of thinking it's impossible to understand certain social relationships in literature.